Who is the new Minister of Digitalisation and Governance?
Karianne Tung from Trøndelag will be a new minister in the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development, including responsibility for digitalisation. Tung is 39 years old and sat in the Norwegian Parliament (Storting) from 2013 to 2017 for Sør-Trøndelag. Furthermore, she will lead a new Ministry of Digitalisation and Governance that will be established from 2024. The new minister is an established figure in the Labour Party and within the tech community in Norway. For several years she has hosted a conference in Trondheim oriented towards deep technology called Trondheim Tech Port.
“I am very much looking forward to starting what I think is one of Norway's most important jobs. Digitization and new technology are primarily an opportunity to make our lives better and easier. This can mean creating new jobs, finding solutions to climate challenges and creating and renewing public services for the people - at school, in the healthcare system and in elderly care,”
-says Karianne Tung in a press release released by Trondheim Tech Port.
The new minister has received an additional push forward with recent developments in Norwegian AI policies. It is clear AI received mentions across most ministries budget proposals for 2024, 1 billion NOK has been announced for AI research and a new strategy for AI was just launched in the Norwegian Ministry of Defence.
Foto: Trondheim Tech Port
What will the responsibility of the new minister be?
It was clearly outlined by the Prime Minister during the press release on Monday the 16th of October that artificial intelligence will be important for the new minister. In a question by Digi he clarified that the question of artificial intelligence will be important to the new minister. Part of the responsibility was to increase interactions on digitalisation across departments. In addition to this, health was mentioned as a particular priority. The following was the full statement about Karianne Tung during the press release translated into English from Norwegian made by Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre:
“Karianne Tung is our new Minister for Digitalisation and Governance. We must renew ourselves and work differently to solve the challenges we face, we are getting fewer people of working age, within health we have major challenges as the Health Personnel Commission has shown and therefore we must take the seriousness that is needed politically. Therefore, we have today decided to create a new ministry, the Ministry for Digitalisation and governance. Technology and digitization affect the everyday life of all of us, in our lives and at work. In how we have contact with the bank and the municipality, and influence what makes us feel safe and unsafe. Artificial intelligence offers enormous opportunities, but requires knowledge, management and regulation. Because it must still be the people who determine the development of technology, not the technology that controls the people.
Digitization occupies and affects all ministries and ministers, everyone has responsibilities here. But we need a clearer and unified strategy for both digitization and artificial intelligence. That is why we are now getting a separate department with a separate minister. The new minister will work closely with many others in the Government to make use of the new opportunities, create the legal framework we need to help us create exciting jobs in a rapidly developing industry. With Karianne, we get a minister who knows the political craft from her many years in politics in Trondheim and her four years in the Storting. She has been connected to the management at NTNU and led Trondheim Tech Port, where the task was to ensure that business, academia, working life parties, volunteering, and the users themselves are connected to make use of the opportunities that technology provides.
I have worked with Karianne at the Storting and in the Labor Party for many years. I am glad that she is returning to political efforts. She will work for an efficient state that provides people with good welfare services. She will have the main responsibility for the trust reform we are going to carry out in the public sector, and in this important work she will bring with her three departments from the current Ministry of Local Government and Districts. Formally, the new ministry will only be operational from the turn of the year and until then Karianne will work in the same ministry as our new municipal and district minister Erlend Sande.”
The three units in question that will enter into the new Ministry are The Department of Government Services, Department of National IT Policy and Public Governance, and Department of Employer Policy. State Secretary Gunn Karin Gjul has been appointed to the new Minister for Digitalisation and Governance Karianne Tung according to the decisions made in King-in-Council (kongen i statsråd).
According to the Norwegian publication Kommunal Reform, the minister for digitization and public administration will also be responsible for, among other things, state personnel and employer policy, operation and development of the state administrators, and the construction of the new government quarter.